Recorded live in concert, August 1996 in the chapel of Trinity College Cambridge.
These CDs set are not commercially distributed, and are available in the USA at The Musical Offering exclusively. Comes with 16-page hardbound book. Check with us for availability. 90-93FM Hilliard LIVE 1 $24.98
The Hilliard LIVE Series
are specially packaged with a 5½ X 8" hardbound book containing
articles on the music and its performance, with special articles by Rogers
Covey-Crump on unequal tuning for early music singers. This series is produced
by the BBC for lobby sale at Hilliard concert events; The Musical Offering
is pleased to be the sole source in North America for these stunning recordings.
David James, countertenor
Rogers Covey-Crump, tenor
John Potter, tenor
Gordon Jones, baritone
A live recording of an á capella concert marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Ockeghem, given in Saint Jude-on -the-Hill Church, Hampstead Garden, February 5, 1997.
These CDs set are not commercially distributed, and are available in the USA at the Musical Offering exclusively. Comes with 16-page hardbound book. 90-93FM Hilliard LIVE 3 $24.98
The Hilliard LIVE Series are specially packaged with a
5½ X 8" hardbound book containing articles on the music and its
performance, with special articles by Rogers Covey-Crump on unequal tuning
for early music singers. This series is produced by the BBC for lobby sale
at Hilliard concert events; The Musical Offering is pleased to be the sole
source in North America for these stunning recordings.
A live recording of a concert given á capella in Saint Alban's Church, Brook Street, London in June 1977.
These CDs set are not commercially distributed, and are available in the USA at the Musical Offering exclusively. Comes with 16-page hardbound book. 90-93FM Hilliard LIVE 2 $24.98
The Hilliard LIVE Series are specially packaged with a
5½ X 8" hardbound book containing articles on the music and its
performance, with special articles by Rogers Covey-Crump on unequal tuning
for early music singers. This series is produced by the BBC for lobby sale
at Hilliard concert events; The Musical Offering is pleased to be the sole
source in North America for these stunning recordings.
David James, countertenor
Rogers Covey-Crump, tenor
John Potter, tenor
Gordon Jones, baritone
A live recording of a concert given á capella in Saint Alban's Church, Brook Street, London, January 22, 1998.
These CDs set are not commercially distributed, and are available in the USA at the Musical Offering exclusively. Comes with 16-page hardbound book. 90-93FM Hilliard LIVE 4 $24.98
The Hilliard LIVE Series are specially packaged with a
5½ X 8" hardbound book containing articles on the music and its
performance, with special articles by Rogers Covey-Crump on unequal tuning
for early music singers. This series is produced by the BBC for lobby sale
at Hilliard concert events; The Musical Offering is pleased to be the sole
source in North America for these stunning recordings.
Recorded 1998. Virgin Classics Veritas CD 45293 $16.98
Alan Curtis's singers have won consistent raves in Europe and here in the US at the Berkeley Festival. They are part of a European wave of performing groups that have heralded in the new surge of singing style in the ongoing early music revolution. This is lusty, full throated singing, compared to the ascetic white sound of the English sopranos who recorded this repertoire twenty years ago. Strict attention has been paid to appropriate placement of vibrato, and to its converse, the applied use of straight tone in particular musical contexts. These performances warrant close comparison with Alessandrini's award-winning recordings on Opus 111.
Warning: If recent performance is an indicator, these discs will
probably not remain in the EMI catalog for long- Curtis's splendid Rossi
and Lotti discs were pulled from distribution after less than two years.
So if you want to experience these fine performances, prompt action is
called for.
Recorded 1998. Virgin Classics Veritas CD 45302 $16.98
Alan Curtis's singers have won consistent raves in Europe and here in the US at the Berkeley Festival. They are part of a European wave of performing groups that have heralded in the new surge of singing style in the ongoing early music revolution. This is lusty, full throated singing, compared to the ascetic white sound of the English sopranos who recorded this repertoire twenty years ago. Strict attention has been paid to appropriate placement of vibrato, and to its converse, the applied use of straight tone in particular musical contexts. These performances warrant close comparison with Alessandrini's award-winning recordings on Opus 111.
Warning: If recent performance is an indicator, these discs will
probably not remain in the EMI catalog for long- Curtis's splendid Rossi
and Lotti discs were pulled from distribution after less than two years.
So if you want to experience these fine performances, prompt action is
called for.
Reviewed in the San Diego Harpsichord Society Newsletter, October 1997, by Peter Yingling.
"This is one of the most splendid harpsichord recordings I have ever heard. It has everything— enchanting music, superb performance, excellent sonics and informative notes.
'The sound must be experienced to be believed— it is big, golden, singing, dramatic. Indeed, Arthur Haas seems to be inspired by it. Equally fascinating is the music, which abounds in piquant dissonance, arresting notes inégales and ferociously difficult passagework. The lucid program notes delve extensively into the composer (dates are 1635-1691) and his unique style, as well as a history of the instrument (a color picture of it adorns the cover). One is left with the impression that those "ancients" really knew what they were doing after all. The harpsichord was made in 1785 by Jacques Germain (1740?-1789); both his father and brother-in-law also built instruments, of which only about ten survive. Germain operated a large Parisian shop and was quite innovative; he experimented with knee levers, and soft leather plectra (peau de buffle) and was also involved producing fortepianos.
'The present instrument passed through a number of hands after 1900 and was restored twice (first by John Challis and again by Hugh Gough). It now resides at the Shrine to Music Museum, in Vermillion, South Dakota (of all places!) which has one of the most extensive collections of keyboard (and other instruments) anywhere.
'For any harpsichord aficionado, this disc is a "must have"; it will also enthrall anyone who enjoys great music played beautifully on a most seductive-sounding instrument..."
Reviewed in Early Keyboard Journal of the Midwest Historical Keyboard Society (MHKS)
"...The D'Anglebert disc includes Wuite No. 1 in G Major and selected transcriptions of orchestral works by Lully as well as from the music of various lute composers. This program provides and opportunity to hear a sampling of these seldom-performed works which are so idiomatically transcribed.
Whenever a recording is made using an historical instrument it becomes a doubly important document, the more so when the performer's artistry matches that of the instrument. The D'Anglebert disc uses the 1785 double by Jacques Germain at the Shrine to Music Musieum in Vermillion, Southe Dakota. In spite of the late date of the instruments, its singing treble and rich bass admirably serve this music, which was written a full century earlier. in the opening section of Lully's Cadmus overture the quality of the treble calls to mind the Baroque orchestral sound of violins coubled by oboes. French music exploits the soundof the harpsichord and Arthur Haas is very sensitive to the ways in which D'Anglebert works with that sound.
There are two unmeasured preludes on this disc. D'Anglebert's manuscript notates these in whole notes, the conventionsal notation for this genre, but his 1689 publication prints some of the notes as eighths, and sixteenths, thereby giving some indication to the performer as to which are the quick passing notes. Int he modern edition the notes are spread out on the page, giving a very horizontal, one-note-after-the-other appearance. The performance here collects these notesin such a way as to move from one harmonic event to the next with the quick notes spilling between and connecting them.
At the heart of D'Anglebert's output are the dance forms. The music
is full of interior detail and complicated with ta plethora of ornament
signs. Haas delineates theunderlying structure, then clothes it in an elegant
fabric of sonorous gestures. Such details as simultaneous ornaments, notes
inégales, and overdotting are marshalled to serve the affect
of each piece. The shifting accents of the courantes and gigues, the gradeur
fo the chaconne and passacaille, the elegaic quality of the sarabandes
and galliardes— each of these is expressed in turn. Particularly compelling
is the performance of the Passacaille from Lully's opera Armide,
in which the inevitable quality of the descending tetrachord on which the
piece is based alternates with episodes for flutes. Haas's playing is elegant
in a a completely natural and unaffected way, free from mannerism or idiosyncracies
which would mar its perfection. We have no sense of what is difficult;
nothing is overly dramatic or inappropriately personal. The playing moves
us by its beauty, suavity, elegance and ease.
Reviewed in the American Record Guide, March 1995, by Robert Haskins.
"...Parmentier's collection bristles with white-hot musical energy...Parmentier shapes the music expressively, but seems more than willing to go beyond the page. His range of articulation and subtle tempo changes in the Gibbons Fantazia of four parts, for instance, brings the disparate sections of this venerable piece to vivid life. He performs a Phillips Pavan and Galliard, uncovering even greater mysteries... Sound is radiant.
Reviewed in Fanfare, December 1994
"I am impressed with this new recording of English virginal music: Parmentier
has found as convincing a style for this repertoire as for Bach (in a long
review in 16:2 I heaped praise on his earlier Wildboar recording of
Bach's Partitas). Indeed, bringing virginal music to life can be considered
the greater challenge. His readings are often boisterous and dancelike,
but even where the tempo is relatively restrained he avoids lingering too
long over the music. He does, however, know how to underscore cross relations
and other crunchy details. There is an inner vitality throughout these
performances. The subtle rhythmic and textural adjustments that Parmentier
makes to enliven a sober work like Gibbons' freat Fantazia from Parthenia
are a lesson. He has, blessedly, made no dogmatic decisions about how to
render the still-controversial virginal ornaments..."
Review in Fanfare January 1993, by
Tom Moore.
"What is here before us is "Six Concertos for Two Flutes and a Bass
with a Through Bass for the Harpsichord Neatly Transpos'd from ye great
Concertos of Arcangelo Corelli", as the 18th-century edition is titled.
The arrangement was done by the composer Johann Christian Schickhardt (a
prolific composer of music for winds, especially recorder), first puclished
by Roger in Amsterdam, and later republished by Walsh in London. There
is as yet no modern edition. Schickhardt selected movements from various
of the twelve concertos, transposed and then reassembled them into essentially
new sonatas. The booklet details the sources for each sonata, so the aficionado
with score can note the alterations and excisions deemed necessary. The
results are quite satisfactory, since Corelli's idiom is not so wedded
to the possibilities fo the violins as that of later Italians, and avoids
extremes of range at both top and bottom. The recorder playing is stylish,
clean, and with rhythmic verve— the artists are prominent in the American
early-music scene, though underrecorded like most Americans. They are ably
accompanied by Parmentier and Sutherland, with the latter turning in fluid
and incisive passagework on the cello. Recommended, especially to the recorderist."
This is an extraordinary harpsichord recording, in several ways:
First, the repertoire is some of the least performed and recorded music
of any era. At the beginning of the period covered, around 1600, Germany
was still basing most of its music, keyboard included, upon Italian models.
Moreover, the Germans were still laboring with the old German keyboard
tablature, an awkward and cumbersome notation compared with the staff notation
already in use in Italy. Why the Germans were slow to emulate the Italians'
notation along with their music is a study waiting to be undertaken.
In the earliest works on this program, it is easy to identify the composers' models-- the English lutenists in Melchior Schildt's Pavana (after Dowland's Lachrymae); Sweelinck and the Dutch organists in Scheidemann's chorale settings; and Frescobaldi in the Toccatas of Kerll and Weckmann. The experienced listener will sense the spirit of Froberger in all the music from mid-century onward. As the program proceeds through the century, the appearance of the French suite with its dance movements seems quite sudden and daring, put into context. Throughout, the German genius inculcates its imported models with a new vigor and intellectual rigor, just as Bach was to do (in spades!) after the period here covered.
The energy and sound of this disc are quite apart from any I've experienced before. Figures tumble out as though some barrier has just released them; melodies seduce as though sung by the sultriest of singers; and bold statements are made, attesting to the strength and character of the composer, and the performer along with him.
The tuning is stated to be quarter-comma meantone, the standard tuning for much of the period covered. And yet the sound of the harpsichord is so colorful, so sweet, so seductive, one wonders how such tones could be wrung from a mere harpsichord. Parmentier's phrasing and expression mirror the harpsichord's colorful speech perfectly-- eloquent, seductive, concise.
One of Wildboar's earliest CDs, "Seventeenth Century French Harpsichord Music", also with Parmentier, stands as a partner in more than title to this later Wildboar effort, despite the dozen years that separate their release dates. The older disc is memorable for its use of "1/3 comma meantone", a tuning possessed of a surpassing sweetness- when it is sweet- and a truly shocking dissonance when it is not. The new German CD's harpsichord is almost as sweet in its tonal colors, but the flashes of discord that characterize the French disc never materialize. Instead, drama is generated through movement and gesture. Nonetheless, these two CDs are united by their exquisite displays of color; I know of no other harpsichord CDs that approach these Wildboar discs in this domain.